How Ray Gunns Venus Nova, pop star of the (retro) future, evolved

In 2025, fictional girl group HUNTR/X took over the world thanks to Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters .

Now, the streamer is bringing a new fictional pop star to our screens in director Brad Bird's Ray Gunn .

Her name? Venus Nova.

SEE ALSO: Fall movie preview: All the 2026 films you need to know about Voiced by Scarlett Johansson, Venus is the biggest star in Ray Gunn 's sprawling, retro-futuristic city of Metropia, reaching the kind of media ubiquity we'd associate with Beyoncé or Taylor Swift.

Even if you wanted to escape her reach, you couldn't: Holographic ads for her next album, Welcome to the Future , top skyscrapers and stand several stories tall.

However, Venus' superstar status comes with a high price.

Her public outbursts and tumultuous relationships are catnip to Metropia's frenzied press, and they're enough to land her at the center of private investigator Ray Gunn's (voiced by Sam Rockwell) murder investigation.

Venus Nova welcomes us to the future (and her new album).

Credit: Skydance Animation / Netflix For Venus to be a larger-than-life icon as well as Ray Gunn 's second lead, Bird and his team had to construct both her pop persona and her troubled personal life.

At a press day at Netflix's animation studios, Bird was joined by art director Wendell Luebbe and VFX supervisor Adel Abada to discuss crafting the latest entry in a long, illustrious line of movie pop stars.

Instead of being inspired by pop stars of today, Venus' look draws on screen legends of the 20th century, emphasizing the "retro" in Ray Gunn 's retro-futuristic setting.

"She went through all kinds of permutations, but ended up [with] a Lauren Bacall meets Veronica Lake look," Luebbe told press.

According to Luebbe and Abada, costume designer Neysa Bove designed 23 looks for Venus, including the gown she wears in her introductory performance.

As Venus rehearses a tongue-in-cheek number, one of several songs written for the film by singer-songrwriter Kimbra, her gown shifts from angelic white to devilish red, complete with a light-up headpiece that mimics a halo and horns.